Assessing the open access effect for hybrid journals

Open access articles in hybrid journals attract more downloads, citations, and attention compared to those published behind a paywall.

In partnership with Digital Science, we analysed a global sample of over 70,000 articles published in Springer Nature hybrid journals. Our new white paper, Assessing the open access effect for hybrid journals, examines the relationship between open access (OA) and impact, demonstrating the wider value hybrid journals bring to researchers, funders, institutions, and society more broadly.

The global analysis showed that:

On average, OA articles were downloaded 1.6 times more by users based at academic institutions and 4 times more by users overall, compared to non-OA articles.

OA articles attracted an average of 1.6 times more citations.

OA articles attracted an average of 2.4 times more Altmetric attention, with 1.9 times more news mentions than non-OA articles.

Hybrid usage report-OA advantage

“This report shows that hybrid journals, given their ability to publish both OA and non-OA articles, play an important role in enabling authors to publish in the journal of their choice while aiding the growth of open access content.”

“We know that authors don’t make decisions based on the publishing model of a particular journal, but are motivated first and foremost by their desire to be published in a relevant peer-reviewed journal with a strong reputation in their community. We respect academic independence so as a global publisher we need to continue to offer a range of publishing options to ensure that we serve the whole research community.”